The Case for Computer-Based Health Care

The prophecy of venture capitalist and Silicon Valley investor Vinod Khosla: computers will replace 80 percent of what doctors do in a couple of decades.

The shift could counter another health-sector trend: stagnant productivity, which the Affordable Care Act aims to address with financial incentives for effective, efficient care. Between 1990 and 2010, productivity in the health care sector declined by 0.6 percent annually as employment increased by 2.9 percent, according to Robert Kocher, now a venture capitalist at Venrock, in an October 2011 editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine. Increasing productivity might bridge this disconnect, and computers could be part of the solution. Khosla, who supports the move to computer-based health care, notes the human frailties that weaken doctors' diagnoses and treatment: The brain is biased, forgetful, and limited. As a result, diagnoses are often inconsistent.